On Civility — A Twitter Thread

Rin Chupeco (@RinChupeco) is an author whose wor I hadn’t encountered until today. What I did encounter was this astonishing Twitter thread showing how “civility” gets used against those who are meant to comply with it. This is directly from her experience with Ferdinand Marcos’ Philippines:

These white people & journalists talking about being civil? These were the rich people, the Fil-Chinese, the mestizos in the Philippines who knew they won't be affected by many of Marcos' policies, and therefore could ignore them even as the killings started.

Marcos kept pushing. First it was all protesters were communists. All student protesters. Then it was the free press. Then it was the people with businesses he coveted. And then it was anyone who looked at Imelda Marcos or his daughter, Imee, wrong. Arrested, raped, murdered.

White people asking for performative civility do the same thing they did, for the same reason – they're afraid. You've never been raised to fear discrimination or prejudice against a system that has always been built in your favor for centuries.

Because regardless of whether you want it or not, status quo benefits white people best. In any upheaval, white people have the least casualties. That makes them the last demographic wanting to rock the boat, even if the boat is full of Nazis steering it straight into Auschwitz.

And here's the kicker: YOU KNOW THEY'RE NOT CIVIL. That's why it's the liberals you keep appealing to for decorum and politeness. You know you're not going to get most Trumpsters on board anything amounting to basic decency.

People invested in putting kids in cages don't want your civility. They don't want you to extend them the same courtesy they never had – and never wanted – from you. What they want is for you to retreat.

"So much for the tolerant left." This is why they say this all the fucking time. This is the bait they expect you to fall for. Your required "tolerance" for the things they do, even as they do the exact opposite to you.

Beware of performative civility. We’d all prefer a governing atmosphere where we can strenuously disagree without belligerence and falsehoods masquerading as a Point of View; where Rule of Law meant what it says; where people were more angry at the corporations that are sucking us dry rather than at poor people just trying to make it work.

There’s been no violence in the protests (or the shunning). Unlike, say, at Trump rallies or like the guy who came to shoot up the pizza parlor in DC because his media told him there was a pedophile ring there. Don’t forget the stakes. We still don’t know alot about the disposition of the children taken away from their parents.And until we do, playing the recording of the children crying outside of the home of the DHS Secretary may be a difficult protest to witness, but it is more difficult to witness the mistreatment of children by this government. Don’t let them move the goalposts while they demand “better” behavior from you.

The idea of Trump and his supporters demanding civility is laughable. Hypocrites. Every last one of them. And the media needs to stop with this nonsense. Amazing how fast they’ve moved on from taking children away from from their parents. The media is a huge part of the problem.